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Different Take on BI Project Issues
I thought Sam’s points on BI projects overall was interesting and certainly a word to the wise on several fronts.
"YES! I’m glad someone had the courage to say it! I think that office politics is one of the biggest threats to a Data Warehousing/BI project. I saw that in my own experience…certain managers were using a bad database as part of their ‘smoke and mirror’ strategy to keep themselves alive in the company. Once we replaced the bad database with a clean BI system then all hell broke loose. I had a director actually scream at me a couple of times saying that "the data could not be accurate", yet we were able to use the same system to fend off a Federal Government investigation with no problems. It seems like some people forget that the reason the company pays them their salary is so they HELP out the company in return.
Some people will gladly sink a BI project (or any other, for that matter) if it means keeping their jobs. The irony of this is that, if enough people do this, the company closes down and then everybody loses their jobs. Dan mentioned the concept of MAD, which definitely exists in this scenario, but I have my own analogy: remember those old Ninja movies where a cornered Ninja would throw down a smoke bomb and then he was gone once the smoke cleared? That’s what these managers reminded me of…"
Now, at first blush this may seem paranoid or looking for trouble, but I have to say, I’ve been in these types of situations as well. Perhaps not to the level of federal investigations, but certainly where someone suddenly realizes that their cover is going to be blown by implementing better systems, better checks and balances. It reminds of the the old "me thinks the lady doth protest too much…" – when people start pushing back on better basis for information, I start wondering what’s up.
I don’t think you need to go all the way to "put your hands up and step away from the database," but certainly it can give you pause and reason to wonder if things are happening (for good or bad reasons) that you may not know about. This can be politics, simple resistance to change or something in between. Just be sure to recognize it and try to get to the root of the issue so you can respond and plan accordingly.
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